


Aberrant Emotion

by creatureofhobbit



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-11
Updated: 2018-05-11
Packaged: 2019-05-05 01:42:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14606409
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/creatureofhobbit/pseuds/creatureofhobbit
Summary: Marlize realises Clifford is no longer the man she married.





	Aberrant Emotion

She’d thought things would be perfect once Clifford was back in the body she had known and loved for all those years. After weeks of getting used to unfamiliar body after unfamiliar body taking the place of that which she had known and loved, one minute the annoying giggle of Becky and the next minute Izzy’s jarring accent, Marlize had felt that once she had her husband back, a possibility she had clung on to as soon as she had realised that one of the bus metas had become a shapeshifter and therefore could take that form again, everything would return to normal and they could continue their work.

It didn’t take her long to realise that things were never going to be the same again. This man may once again wear her husband’s face, but Marlize was no longer sure he was the man she had married. The Clifford DeVoe she had once known had respected her as an equal, rather than rubbishing her views and relegating her to the role of technician. She was the one who had first come up with his Thinking Cap design; she was the one who had designed the chair that had kept him alive when his brain was beginning to drain the life force from his body. Was he going to take the credit now for her achievements, brush her aside as though her contribution had been of no value? She had been so quick to put down Barry Allen when he had seemed to imply that she was not her husband’s equal. "A helper? Is that what you think I am? A mindless minion carrying out her master's bidding? Some sort of evil secretary? No, Mr. Allen. I am now and forever will be my husband's partner." Now she was beginning to think that in fact, Barry had seen the situation more clearly than she ever had, understanding the relationship between Marlize and her husband in a way she was now only just beginning to comprehend.

She had sacrificed everything for him: her friends and family in South Africa, her time in the Peace Corps, her own sense of herself. How had Marlize come to be a person who could become so at ease with the idea of taking a life – even if it had been to save that of her husband? Yet he had forced her to swallow her own unease back when Clifford had first taken over the body of Dominic. She had tried to reconcile herself to the murder of Ralph Dibny by telling herself that it provided the opportunity to get her husband back, but faced with the reality she was no longer so sure. Ralph had people who cared for him; who were Clifford and Marlize to take that away? She no longer believed she could say the same about herself. Who was this woman who was willing to condone murder, to accept Clifford’s treatment of her so docilely? The Marlize who had friends, a family, who knew what she wanted from life, who was loved, who made a positive difference in the world, who had joined the Peace Corps to make a difference in the world, could recognise herself no more in the woman she saw staring back at her in the mirror, just as she no longer recognised the man she had married in the man stood before her today.

It was time for Marlize to reclaim her life, to plan a future for herself, not to let Clifford attempt to control her any more. Once some instinct had told her not to use the name of any recipe to do with lemons when she made a recording again about what Clifford was doing to her, Marlize had been able to make one that Clifford wasn’t aware of. Why would he be? After all, he had made it perfectly clear what he thought of human emotions when he hadn’t expected Barry Allen’s emotional response to Ralph Dibny’s death, so she was something he was hardly likely to factor in to his little plans. He would be genuinely surprised when she turned her back on him; and yet Marlize thought he would only care due to the impact it would have on his plans, and she understood now how much she was worth more than that. The man who had believed he was nothing without her, who had travelled so many miles for her in her Peace Corps days, who looked at Marlize as though she mattered, was gone, and she no longer wished to be married to the man who had taken his place.


End file.
